Techmeme
January 9, 2020, 8:25 PM

Top News

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Facebook says it won't back down from allowing lies in political ads but will give users the option to see fewer political ads in their feed and in Instagram  —  The company was under intense pressure to adjust its policies.  But in this presidential election year, no big changes are planned.
Mark Zuckerberg:
Zuckerberg gives up annual personal challenges, shares his goals for the next decade including a new private social platform, AR/VR, and new forms of governance  —  Every new year of the last decade I set a personal challenge.  My goal was to grow in new ways outside my day-to-day work running Facebook.
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Lime says it is laying off about 14% of its workforce, roughly 100 employees, and shuttering operations in 12 markets as it seeks to become profitable this year  —  Scooter company Lime is laying off about 14% of its workforce (roughly 100 employees) and shuttering operations in 12 markets …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Brochure shows a surveillance vendor is offering spying capabilities to local police via hidden cameras in tombstones, vacuum cleaners, and baby car seats  —  A surveillance vendor that works with U.S. government agencies, such as the FBI, DEA, and ICE, is marketing spying capabilities …
Emma Williams / Microsoft 365 Blog:
Microsoft announces a Walkie Talkie feature and off-shift access controls for Teams, SMS sign-in for Azure Active Directory, shared device sign-out, more  —  Companies at the forefront of digital transformation recognize how critical it is to enable all of their people with the right technology and tools.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
MalwareBytes: an Android phone offered free by Assurance Wireless as part of the US Lifeline Assistance program comes pre-installed with Chinese malware  —  For years, low-income households have been able to get cheap cell service and even free smartphones via the U.S. government-funded Lifeline Assistance program.
Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Microsoft releases “Project Artemis”, a tool that scans online chats for patterns that may indicate a predator is grooming children for sexual abuse  —  Microsoft released a new tool Thursday that scans online chats for people seeking to sexually exploit children.
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Amazon warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a browser extension for comparison shopping and rewards acquired by Paypal for $4B in November, was a “security risk”  —  The retail giant warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a popular browser extension, was a “security risk.”  Honey denies the claim.
Bloomberg:
Government data shows iPhone sales in China rose by 18.7% YoY to ~3.18M units in December while overall smartphone shipments were ~30M, down 13.7% YoY  —  - December numbers validate confidence in Apple's latest models  — The U.S. phone maker is defying a slump in the local market
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Verizon eliminates bundles and contracts for Fios line of TV, broadband, and phone services, will now sell them as standalone products via “Mix & Match on Fios”  —  Verizon — feeling the pain of customer cancellations over high pay-TV prices — is killing off bundles …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Facebook starts testing a desktop redesign, announced last April, with a small set of users, plans to offer the new look more broadly sometime before the spring  —  Facebook 's begun giving some users access to its redesigned desktop experience, first announced in April, that's less cluttered and uses brighter icons.
Thanks:@iansherr
David Gilbert / VICE:
Facebook moderators in Ireland say company policies, including tracking toilet breaks and setting unrealistic quality standards, add to their trauma  —  Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox?  Sign up here.  —  DUBLIN — When Valera Zaicev began working in Dublin …
Susan Decker / Bloomberg:
Medical technology company Masimo sues Apple, claims it infringes on 10 patents and has stolen its tech related to blood oxygen level and heart rate monitoring  —  - Medical technology company says Watch uses stolen secrets  — Apple accused of stealing technology for non-invasive monitors
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Mozilla patches an actively exploited Firefox zero-day flaw that could allow attackers to take control of computers by accessing sensitive memory locations  —  Flaw allows attackers to access sensitive memory locations that are normally off-limits.  —  Mozilla has released a new version …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit bans the impersonation of an individual or entity in a misleading or deceptive manner, but impersonation that's satire will still be allowed  —  But impersonation that's satire will still be allowed  —  Today, Reddit updated its policies about impersonation to no longer allow impersonation …

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Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Joseph Cox / VICE:
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Devindra Hardawar / Engadget: